Roast Vegetables

Preheat Oven to 200C / 400F / gas mark 6

Prepare you vegetable by peeling where necessary and chopping into large chunks. Vegetables tend to shrink when roasted, so cut bigger than 'bite sized'. Root vegetables roast better if they are cut length ways as well to reduce the thickness of the chunks. They cut well into fingers. Some vegetables can be left whole, such as mushrooms and baby sweetcorn.

If you are using cabbage, broccoli, fennel or similar vegetables, blanch them before roasting. To do this plunge them into a large pan of boiling water for 3-4 minutes, then drain. Allow to dry, placing on some absorbent kitchen paper will help.

Place a good glug of olive oil in bowl and add the prepared veg. Use your hands to move the vegetables around so that all pieces are coated in oil. Transfer any 'hard vegetables' such as root vegetables and any blanched vegetables to a roasting tin (don't add 'soft vegetables, such as courgettes and mushrooms at this stage). It is important that you don't overload your baking tray - too many vegetables will not allow steam to escape, resulting in mushy veg. Try to place the veg so that there is one layer only, without too much touching. Depending on how much you are cooking, you may need to use an additional baking tray. Remember to leave room to add the softer veg as necessary.

Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes after which the veg should starting to roast nicely. Turn the veg so that they can cook evenly adding any soft veg not yet in the oven. If you are using 2 roasting tins, you may find that swapping them over on the shelves achieves better roasting.

Roast for a further 20 minutes or until the vegetables are done. The exact time is going to depend on what veg you use, how many you have and your oven.

When the vegetables are brown on all sides, remove to a serving bowl and toss over the vegetable seasoning (take care not to break up the veg). Serve immediately.